Door County Medical Center’s new Milk Depot is looking for community members to donate breast milk for inpatient babies at DCMC as well as the greater NE Wisconsin region.
“I can't fully express how much it means to be able to provide this service right here at Door County Medical Center,” says Registered Nurse and Lactation Consultant Jessica Skinner, who leads a variety of lactation and childbirth programming at DCMC. “Becoming a donor is an essential part of making this service available to families in our community.”
If you would like to donate, the first step is to contact Mother's Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes (MMBWGL). Their organization has a screening process which includes an application, a phone interview, and blood testing at no cost to the donor. After you have been screened, you will be given a donor number which allows your milk to be tracked and properly logged into the system. From there you would drop your milk off at Door County Medical Center’s Milk Depot and it would be shipped to the milk bank where it is batched and pasteurized. Donor milk is then made available for inpatient babies at DCMC as well other milk depots in NE Wisconsin.
“It’s important for newborns and infants to have access to human milk because its nutritional and immunological content far surpasses formula,” says Certified Nursing Assistant Julie Neuchter, who works with Skinner and is the Breastfeeding Peer Counselor for The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
Prior to DCMC’s Milk Depot, the choice for inpatient babies was formula or their mother’s milk. According to Skinner, some parents, for a variety of reasons, have issues breastfeeding or accessing enough breast milk for their child. “As an approved milk depot, parents no longer have to drive to Green Bay once they have been screened by the milk bank. It really comes down to providing more options for parents.”
DCMC will begin accepting donor milk on November 20, 2019.
If you are interested in donating breast milk, please go to MMBWGL’s website: milkbanknwgl.org. Folks may also call 847-262-5134 or e-mail donors@milkbankwgl.org. If you have additional questions, please contact Door County Medical Center Birthing Center at 920-746-3595.
Please note if someone wants to purchase donor milk, they would need to go to HSHS St. Mary's in Green Bay.